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Bible reading for weekend Nov 3 -- 4  Nov 3 -- Hosea 9 and Psalms 126-128 Nov 4 -- Hosea 10 and Psalms 129-131 ================ "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you." (Hosea 10:12)  GOOD-BYE, GOOD TIMES (ch 9). "The days of recompense have come" (v 7). All the good things in life that Israel pursued apart from God will be taken from them. There is a glory for humanity, but it is the glory of knowing God as Maker, Redeemer, and Provider of every good thing. What glory Israel had at that time would "fly away like a bird" (v 11). The city of Gilgal (v 15) was party-central for the nation's idolatrous activity (cf 4:13-15). The principle here is that if you pursue happiness apart from God you will ultimately lose both happiness and God, too. Consider these two quotes from C. S. Lewis: “God cannot give us a happiness and pea...

My wife and I are enjoying Randy Alcorn's updated book of "Seeing the Unseen" devotions.  It's wonderful to find books that we both like reading together.  It's a great way to start the day, reading aloud to each other.   Here's one highlight from Day 63, "Homesick for Eden's Happiness" When we separate God from happiness and from our longing for happiness, we undermine the Christian worldview... Were we merely the product of natural selection and survival of the fittest, we’d have no grounds for believing any ancient happiness existed. But even those who have never been taught about the Fall and the Curse intuitively know that something has gone seriously wrong. Why else would we long for happiness and sense what a utopian society should look like if we’ve never seen one? We are nostalgic for an Eden we’ve only heard echoes of. What if God made us for happiness, and therefore our desire to be happy is inseparable from our longing for God? ...

Working on a sermon for Philippians series.  Special focus on Phil. 1:21... "for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."  In thinking about joy and happiness, I came upon a number of quotes by C. S. Lewis on the topic of happiness... “All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”  (From Mere Christianity ) “I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.”  (From Surprised by Joy ) “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”  (From Mere Christianity ) “Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose... only (upon) the Beloved who will never pass away.”  (Quoting Augustine in The Four Loves ) “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” ...